Who wanted to be Lizzie Bennet? Not me, aged 10, that's for sure. I wanted to be elder sister Jane, who was beautiful and good. She thought the best of everyone, even when Miss Bingley was being a total cow. Even then, I felt dimly, this was going to be...

When I first saw Mary Beard, an erudite whirl of crimson speeding on her bicycle around the Eternal City, I thought I'd turned on BBC4 by mistake.

After all, she must be Danish, right? And this must be subtitled? Because I imagine only in sensible places like...

When it comes to Dickens, quite honestly I've never had ' Great Expectations.' Maybe it was the nine hour version of Nicholas Nickelby our class was treated to at school, or all those lawyers in Dombey and Son, or else the guarantee that someone, at some point, was going to...

No one who loves the saga of Beowulf is surprised as to how an area like Scandinavia; famous for its furniture, relaxed attitude towards adultery and, of course, jumpers; could have produced something as dark and brooding as The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo.

Monsters lurked in the dark...

There are many sights which lift the heart, but the one of pop star Jason Derulo trudging towards seat 16F after discovering Aer Lingus only does economy to Belfast will stay with me for months.

Derulo was one of the stars imported into Northern Ireland this weekend to make...

Some reporters run after convoys heading to liberate Tripoli. Me, I run in tight shoes after Bono.

It was one of those frontline situations at the Q Awards. If you're one of the great unwashed of Hoxton, this means you will spend the afternoon ligging at the Grosvenor Hotel....

I think I once had Mastodon confused with Mastitis. That was my mistake. Mastodon - a self-described Sludge Metal band - merely causes inflammation of the ears.

However, everything in me swelled up with joy when I heard that the Atlanta quartet were getting their four minutes on 'Later...

Rock music, like Ozzy Osbourne, should have died years ago.

By that, I mean the brand of AOR and pop metal which has been given a new lease of life by 'Rock of Ages', which opened officially last night in London's West End.

Starring the talents...

It was the news that sent me to breaking point - that Hollywood wants to remake 'Pointbreak'.

It's a surf cop classic ( admittedly there aren't that many to compete in that particular genre) starring Keanu Reeves as a police officer who has to track down a gang of bank...

An alcoholic and opium addict, a social recluse and all dead by the age of 40. You get the feeling that the troubled Brontes should have lived in Albert Square.

Yet there isn't a literary family anywhere to equal the combined genius of Charlotte, Emily and Anne, or even the...

Our summer riots may be a source of national shame. Likewise, our summer weather. But at least British films are cause for riotous celebrations and thunderous applause at the Venice Film Festival.

"If there is a national cinema represented here," claims festival director Marco Mueller," it's the UK's."

Steve McQueen...

Madonna and Wallis Simpson have much in common. Twice divorced, scandalous Americans
exiled to London, who both seem to abide by Wallis's famous advice, "you can never be too rich or too thin."

Where Wallis and Madonna slightly veer off the road is over love. King Edward VIII gave...

Were it not for George Clooney, the Venice Film Festival would have sunk faster than the city itself.

While other film makers transferred to the Toronto festival, (so much cheaper to fly from Hollywood) Clooney chooses Venice (so much cheaper to drive to from Lake Como).

Why he persists in...